tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2283876274950645902.post6959612160433361212..comments2020-01-15T04:10:26.249-05:00Comments on The Political Doctor: Self-interest and trustPoliticalDoctorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01004730229112746172noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2283876274950645902.post-74302859847022349982012-07-16T11:36:14.079-04:002012-07-16T11:36:14.079-04:00"The Republican economic platform is based on..."The Republican economic platform is based on the idea that we will all benefit if only we could cut taxes and get out of rich people's way" <br /><br />I think that's some of the *mainstream* republican platform. <br /><br />The grassroots, tea party platform is not about getting out of "rich people's" way - its about getting out of everyone's way. Labor mobility and ease of entrepreneurship is the focus - and the rich have worked very hard for years to eliminate the mobility of the poor & middle classes, and make it harder to start businesses. <br /><br />Eliminating wasteful regulation and costly compliance doesn't help most established big businesses - now a smaller competitor can compete more easily. <br /><br />Home Depot can afford a legal department to navigate the licensure and regulatory local,state,and federal bureaucracies, a payroll department for HR compliance, and a tax department for the myriad of tax schemes it likely *supports*. <br /><br />It supports those schemes so that it is harder for the local hardware store to compete, since the local store may only be the owner plus one to five employees, and none of these folks are experts in payroll, taxes, etc.<br /><br />The republican economic platform *used* to be about the American Dream - rags to riches capitalism, not helped along by the government, and not burdened by overblown regulation. <br /><br />P.J. O'Rourke said, I believe in <i>Parliment of Whores</i>:<br /><br />When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators.nybhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06111907939712607618noreply@blogger.com